CLEVELAND (Ticker) -- Tim Couch's return to the starting lineup resulted in Marvin Lewis' first win as an NFL coach.
Jon Kitna passed for three touchdowns to spoil Couch's return to the lineup as the Cincinnati Bengals won for first time this season with a 21-14 victory over the Cleveland Browns in a battle of AFC North rivals.
After losing a training camp battle with Kelly Holcomb for the starting job, Couch was back as the starter for Sunday's game. Holcomb suffered a hairline fracture in his leg in last week's win at San Francisco.
Couch was sharp in the first half, throwing a pair of touchdowns. But he struggled to move his club after intermission as the Browns (1-3) suffered an embarrassing loss.
In the final minute, Couch, who makes $6.2 million this season, tried to engineer a comeback but he was intercepted in Cincinnati territory by Jeff Burris. Couch finished 23-of-36 for 280 yards and also was sacked twice.
Kitna's third touchdown pass, a one-yard toss to tight end Reggie Kelly with 9:42 left in the third quarter snapped a 14-14 tie.
Kitna also had TD passes of three and 55 yards to Chad Johnson in the first half for the Bengals (1-3), who avoided starting 0-4 for the fourth time in the last five seasons.
"It's been a great day," Lewis said. "The guys have worked extremely hard and they reaped their rewards today. This was a good team victory, so I'm excited about that."
"It's a big step," Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson said. "It shows what Marvin brought to the table. Not only defensively, but his presence had made us a better offense. It all comes down to how we practice and the play-calling."
Cleveland committed nine penalties for 86 yards, with many of the miscues being false starts with Couch out of sync with his line.
"We hurt ourselves a bit," Couch said. "We're all guilty of them, myself included. We've got to be a more disciplined football team. That is the bottom line. We cannot go out there and have plays called back. I'm not sure how many yards we got called back today, but I'm sure it's quite a bit."
Browns coach Butch Davis also pointed to the penalties.
"We played about as poor in several areas of this game as you could possibly play," Davis said. "The penalties absolutely killed us."
Considered an excellent defensive coach, Lewis' attacking scheme seemed to fluster Couch, who was under constant pressure in the second half.
Couch, who was trying to orchestrate the 11th fourth-quarter comeback over his career, moved the Browns just past midfield with 60 seconds remaining. But on first down, he came under pressure and was intercepted by Burris.
"On the previous play they ran a similar route," Burris said. "They were trying to get vertical and run separate routes. Andre Davis ran a hook right in front of me so I figured they were going to run it again and try to get behind the coverage."
Kitna received much better protection and it showed as he completed 23-of-31 passes for 215 yards.
"He played another good football game," Lewis said. "He has been a good leader and persevered through this thing."
Kitna made one of the game's biggest plays with 20 seconds left in the first half, when he lofted a pass down the middle to Johnson for a 55-yard touchdown, tying the game at 14-14. Johnson ran by strong safety Robert Griffith on the play.
"They were in a zone defense," Johnson explained. "It was kind of confusing because me and Peter (Warrick) and somebody else bunched together. So I guess the defense checked off. When we took off the line, I just ran right by him ... Straight post."
"We knew the route was coming," Davis said. "It's a route we had seem them execute and throw. We just didn't make the play. It didn't catch us by surprise. We watched them all throughout the preseason and when they got in that formation and put those guys in the similar position, we knew it was coming."
On the Bengals' first possession of the third quarter, Kitna went deep again and drew a 36-yard pass interference penalty on Daylon McCutcheon to move the ball to the 1.
Two plays later, Kitna found Kelly wide open in the end zone to give the Bengals a 21-14 lead.
Kitna was able to have an effective game despite the absence of star running back Corey Dillon, who left in the first half with a groin injury. Rudi Johnson picked up the slack for Dillon and rushed for 51 yards on 15 attempts.
Early in the fourth quarter, Couch moved the Browns to the Bengals 28. But on 4th-and-4, his pass for Kevin Johnson fell incomplete.
Couch's day got off to a much different start. On the second play from scrimmage, he swung a pass to the right for Quincy Morgan, who raced 71 yards for a touchdown.
But the Bengals responded with a 14-play, 76-yard drive. The Bengals converted three third downs on the march that Kitna capped with a three-yard TD pass to Johnson.
After Couch had 59-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Johnson nullified by a holding penalty early in the second quarter, he still was able to lead the Browns into the end zone on the same drive.
Couch was credited with a 41-yard pass to Johnson on the play that he capped with a four-yard TD pass to running back Jamel White, giving the Browns a 14-7 lead with 9:31 left in the half.
Kevin Johnson finished with five catches for 89 yards. Morgan had three receptions for 92 yards.
"The bottom line is they outplayed us in the second half," Browns offensive lineman Barry Stokes said. "It was that simple today. We got beat by a team that should not have beaten us."
